REACTION TO PEARL HARBOR In Washington, the mood ranged from outrage to panic. At the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt watched closely as her husband absorbed the news from Hawaii, “each report more terrible than the last.” Beneath the president’s calm, Eleanor could see how worried he was. “I never wanted to have to fight this war on two fronts,” Roosevelt told his wife. “We haven’t the Navy to fight in both the Atlantic and the Pacific . . . so we will have to build up the Navy and the Air Force and that will mean that we will have to take a good many defeats before we can have a victory. ” The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” he said, “[the Japanese launched] an unprovoked and dastardly attack.” Congress quickly approved Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war against Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. For all the damage done at Pearl Harbor, perhaps the greatest was to the cause of isolationism. Many who had been former isolationists now supported an all-out American effort. After the sur-prise attack, isolationist senator Burton Wheeler proclaimed, “The only thing now to do is to lick the hell out of them.” According to the text above, the main idea of this passage is best described as: a Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. b The official policy in the United States required the president to ask Congress to declare war. c Roosevelt was unwilling to fight the war on two fronts. d The attack on Pearl Harbor changed the American policy on the war from isolationism to a declaration of war.
